Meeting with the members of the Diplomatic Corps

10/29/2014

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome you once again at the Prague Castle. Firstly, allow me to say a few words about the Czech foreign policy. As you may already know it is based on two main principles; economic diplomacy and the fight against international terrorism.

Regarding economic diplomacy, we sincerely hope that the Ambassador in Czechia will support Czech exporters in their respective countries. Please excuse my preferred term “Czechia” as it is shorter and I find it more beautiful than the term “Czech Republic”. In addition, I sincerely hope that these Ambassadors will also support the possible option of investment into Czechia, should their countries have a surplus of capital.

As for international terrorism, you may already be aware that Czech soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan, Mali, Sinai and some other countries. Unfortunately, five of them were recently killed in Afghanistan. For their courage they received the State Decoration yesterday. But this is life. We must fight terrorists and a terrorist is anybody who kills or threatens civilians. It is a clear and understandable definition of international terrorism, whether it concerns Al-Kaida, Taliban, Al-Nusra and in the last months the new emergence of the Islamic State.

It is my sincere wish that the ongoing good cooperation between the president of Czechia and the Ambassadors will continue. I have recently returned from my very successful visit to China and I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Chinese Ambassador for her support. I hope that I will have the same chance to thank for of the Ambassadors, who are present in this hall, for such support in the future.

To conclude, allow me to wish you a continuing good cooperation. If need be, my door is always open for you, it only depends on your initiative and your innovative proposals. I wish you all the best and good luck.

Thank you.

Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, Prague castle, 29th October 2014